DIOGENES: In Search Of An Honest Politician!

DIOGENES invites you to pull up a chair on this rainy day and read
posts from around the world.
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Sunday, April 12, 2015

Iran deal gives nuclear weapons to most dangerous terror state

Iran would be able to possess nuclear weapons under the terms of the framework agreement reached with the six world powers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday night, adding that he hoped the deal would not come to fruition.
"I truly believe that we are also talking about the security of the world.," he said, during a Mimouna celebration in Or Akiva, a coastal town in northern Israel. "The most dangerous terrorist in the world shouldn't receive the world's most dangerous weapons."
"Therefore, we are committed to try to avoid a bad agreement and replace it in good agreement," Netanyahu said.
He added that the agreement leaves Iran with significant nuclear capacities and does not provide enough oversight.

President Obama's Misguided War on 'Conversion Therapy'

With all the major, life critical issues taking place in America and around the globe, it is absolutely mind-boggling that President Obama has decided to declare war on so-called “conversion therapy,” joining in the battle to outlaw professional counseling for minors struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender identity confusion.

This is political correctness run amuck, and the president, with all his power and influence, is intruding himself where he most certainly does not belong, standing in the way of personal autonomy and individual choice, seeking to deprive young people of the very thing that might just save them from many years of suffering and pain.

By what authority does he seek to do this?

On April 8th, the New York Timesreported, “Obama Calls for End to ‘Conversion’ Therapies for Gay and Transgender Youth,” pointing to an official White House statement posted by Valerie Jarrett which begins with this quote from the president:

“Tonight, somewhere in America, a young person, let's say a young man, will struggle to fall to sleep, wrestling alone with a secret he's held as long as he can remember. Soon, perhaps, he will decide it's time to let that secret out. What happens next depends on him, his family, as well as his friends and his teachers and his community. But it also depends on us -- on the kind of society we engender, the kind of future we build.”

I appreciate the president’s compassion, but it is misguided at best and, at worst, simply reflects his larger, radical LGBT activism.

Either way, what he fails to realize is that there are plenty of former homosexuals, some of whom are no longer same-sex attracted, some of whom have seen a great reduction in those attractions, and others of whom have broken free from homosexual relationships and are very happy with the present state of their lives, despite being same-sex attracted.

I know quite a few of them personally, I have watched some of their lives for years, and they are fulfilled, whole, healthy, and joyful people – and a good number of them received great help through professional counseling.

How dare the president of the United States seek to forbid young people from receiving such positive counseling. And remember: We’re talking about counseling they want to receive, not counseling they are being forced to receive.

It is well-known that many of those who identify as homosexual and bisexual were sexually abused as children, and sometimes, they can trace their gay or bisexual feelings back to that abuse.

Yet the president wants to tell a child who has been sexually abused, who is now dealing with unwanted same-sex attractions, who for any number of reasons – social, spiritual, moral, familial – is not happy with those attractions, that it is illegal for that boy or girl, even at 17-years-old, to receive professional counseling.

This is outrageous and represents an extraordinary example of improper government overreach.

The same is true when it comes to transgender issues.

The president wants to make it illegal for a child who struggles with gender identity to receive professional counseling to help resolve those issues. In other words, if a boy feels like he is a girl trapped in a boy’s body, it would be illegal – yes, illegal – for that boy to meet with a psychologist or therapist who would work with the child to help him feel at home in his body.

Yet the president would be all for that child going to another counselor who would tell his parents, “Send him to school dressed as a girl, demand that the school treat him as a girl and be sure he uses the girl’s bathroom, put him on hormone blockers before he goes into puberty, and as soon as he’s old enough, get him sex-change surgery and then put him on hormones for life.”

According to the president’s philosophy, that would be perfectly legal, even commendable, but sitting down and talking with a child about his or her gender identity confusion, with the goal of helping that child avoid puberty-blocking hormones, sex-change surgery, and hormones for life would be illegal.

What kind of social madness is this?

The response from President Obama would surely be, “It has been proven that conversion therapy doesn’t work and that it is downright dangerous, not just snake oil, but snake oil that has led to many suicides.”

First, there are countless reports of success stories from professional counseling, and many of them have stood the test of time. That means that such therapy often does work.

Second, the alleged damage done by such therapy is often highly exaggerated and sometimes completely manufactured, while scientific studies challenging this are often suppressed by the gay activist lobby in the professional psychological and psychiatric associations. In keeping with this (and as I documented in A Queer Thing Happened to America), the media’s reporting about the APA’s Task Force study on “conversion therapy” was quite inaccurate, also failing to mention that every member of the Task Force was either openly gay (and, for the most, known for gay activist stances) or else a strong gay activist ally. And it is their study that is constantly quoted as “proof” that this professional counseling is negative and harmful. There is a reason that, with the exception of California, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia, attempts to outlaw “conversion therapy” have failed, and that is because the truth is trumping the lies.

Third, with all professional counseling for serious life issues, some people are helped, some people see no change, and some feel that the counseling hurt them. Perhaps all counseling should be banned because of the stories of failure? (I’m being facetious.) In reality, counselors do their best to help their clients, and it’s for the client to decide if they want to continue the counseling or not.

Fourth, the president ignores (or is ignorant of) the fact that many of those who undergo sex-change surgery end up with deep regret and irreversible pain, with a disturbingly high percentage committing suicide. Recent articles like Stella Morabito’s “Trouble in Transtopia: Murmurs of Sex Change Regret” point to a growing, disturbing trend, and if we really care about LGBT people, we need to listen carefully to these voices too.

I am certainly not advocating parents forcing their children into some kind of high-pressure, coercive counseling, and I advise every parent with a child who identifies as LGBT to show them their unconditional love.

At the same time, I absolutely support the right of a minor to receive professional counseling for unwanted same-sex attraction or gender-identity confusion, and with all respect to the office of the president, I say: Sir, please don’t impose your views on precious kids and young people who do not share you radical LGBT ideology. That is a right that you do not have, and it is absolutely not part of your job description to attempt to steal the right of self-determination from a young person.

Mr. President, there are many, serious issues that demand your attention and involvement. This is not one of them.

Cruz Thunderously Received At NRA Meeting

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz opened his remarks to National Rifle Association members Friday describing his disgust with the president’s description of the 2010 Fort Hood shooting as “work place violence.” Cruz began Friday at the Army Base in Texas and told the audience that the military personnel who were killed or wounded by Nidal Hassan were finally awarded the purple heart.
“It is a time for truth. you cannot win a war on radical Islamic terrorism with a president who is unwilling to utter the words ‘radical Islamic terrorists.’ Instead of a terrorist who boycotts Prime Minister Netenyahu,” Cruz told the NRA audience. “Imagine America standing unapologetically with the nation of Israel. Imagine a commander in chief standing up with clarity, saying ‘We will defeat radical Islamic terrorists.’”
The Texas Republican then shifted his remarks to the White House’s nuclear talks with Iran.
“And under no circumstances will the nation of Iran be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Some weeks ago I joined with 46 other senators signing a letter we sent to Iran explaining that under the United States Constitution there are only two ways something becomes a law — either it is a treaty ratified by two thirds of the Senate or a law passed by both houses of Congress signed by the president. The Obama White House went a little hysterical about that letter.”

Cruz also discussed his Second Amendment bonafides telling the firearm supporters, “When I was the solicitor general of Texas I led a coalition of 31 states before the United States Supreme Court defending the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and we won 5-4 —-a landmark decision upholding that right.”
He went further remarking, “President Obama had an opportunity then. He could of brought people together in a bipartisan manner to say let’s go after violent felons. Let’s go after criminals. Let’s protect our kids and stop the bad guys, but instead he used it as an excuse to come after the Second Amendment right of law abiding citizens.”
Cruz revealed how helpless Republicans felt after the tragic Sandy Hook shooting when Democrats proposed gun control legislation.
“In the weeks and months that followed Sandy Hook, if you guys were sitting in the Senate Republican lunch, you’da jumped out the window, because the sentiment there was ‘This is unstoppable,’” Cruz explained.
“This is a freight train that can’t be stopped let’s get out of the way. And I tell you I was proud to stand with my friends Mike Lee and Rand Paul in sending a very short two sentence letter to Harry Reid saying we will filibuster any legislation that undermines the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”

Clinton Campaign to Be Built on an 'Obama Third Term'

Hillary Clinton plans to build her planned quest for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination on a risky strategy that touts a "new chapter" that builds on President Barack Obama's efforts and embraces her 2008 opponent as a key ally and adviser.

Clinton, 67, who is expected to announce her candidacy on Sunday, "is proud of what was accomplished, both as President Obama’s partner on critical issues of national security, and on the progress made on the domestic front," her spokesman, Nick Merrill, told The New York Times.

Merrill added that Clinton's campaign, "would be about laying out her own vision for tackling our toughest challenges."
The Times sums up the dilemma facing Clinton this way: "How can she run for president as her own person, without criticizing the sitting president she served — while her Republican opponents will be working to demonize them both?"
The former secretary of state can take little credit for many of what Obama considers as his strongest domestic accomplishments — Obamacare, for instance — and she opens herself to widespread attacks regarding such foreign policy issues as Israel, Iran, and Russia, the Times reports.